Shadows

Rating: PG-13

Summery: "He painted a pretty picture for you, didn't he Ron, what with all of his colorful lies and empty promises, how could I possibly compete with that?" A series of events leads Ron to the dark side, can anyone bring him back?


Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize I don't own

Chapter Four

A Day of Revelations

I felt panic start to rise inside of me, how could I just be empty? I placed my head in my hands and felt my body shake in utter disbelief.

I didn't have a soul.

How was I even alive? I thought that everyone had a soul, where was mine?

Even you-know-who has a soul, black as it may be.

Oh good gracious, I am worse then V…Vol…he-who-must-not-be-named.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain go straight through my head and felt myself involuntarily flinch at the sting. I needed help, I needed answers, I needed someone brilliant, I needed Hermione.

I quickly stood up, grabbed my wand and took the charms off of the door. I then bounded down the hallway to Ginny's room where I knew that Hermione was currently residing.

I lifted my arm to knock on the door but hesitated with apprehension when I looked at the block letters spelling out Ginny's name on her door. I took a deep breath and sincerely hoped that my sister was not in her room as I bravely knocked on the door.

It opened a second later and I let out a sigh of relief when I saw only a sea of brown hair, not a trace or red in sight.

"Hermione," I began in a nervous shaky tone. "Can I talk to you about something?"

She flashed me a concerned look before ushering me into the room. "What's wrong Ron? You look so pale, are you ill?"

I shook my head slightly, "I don't really know." We sat down on the spare cot that Hermione was sleeping on and I prepared myself for my line of strange questioning. "Hermione, I wanted to ask you some things and I'll forewarn you that they are strange but please just answer them to the best of your ability and don't ask me any questions in return."

"All right Ron," she said slowly, "whatever you want."

I nodded and took a deep breath. "Have you…I mean do you know of any…is it normal for…" All right so that didn't work out too well. I mentally shook myself and tried again, best to just get it out. "Have you ever heard of someone not having a soul?" I asked very quickly.

"Not having a soul?" She repeated. I nodded and she went into deep thought. "Hmm, well it is highly irregular but I have actually read of a few such occurrences." She got up from the temporary bed and began to rummage through her trunk. After a few minutes and a triumphant cry she held up a book with the title You Thought That You Were Strange: A Record of the Most Unusual Magical Occurrences.

She held it out to me with a smile and I reluctantly took it, spying that the book appeared to be larger than Hermione.

"There you go," she said happily, "I'm so excited to see you taking an interest in something. You know the field of Unusual Magical Occurrences is a dying one but I do believe that if you set your mind to it you could bring that department of the Ministry back to life! Oh Ron," she gushed, "you are such a pioneer!"

I tried my best not to look completely lost and confused. "Uh, yeah, well you know, everyone has to have a…career?"

She nodded vigorously, "yes I am so very glad to see you wanting to help those less magically fortunate."

I merely nodded and decided that it would be best if I got out of the room as quickly as possible before I said something utterly idiotic. "Yes, well I best be going then."

I made it back to my room in a record amount of time and found that I was running short on breath from simply carrying the stupid book. As soon as the door was clicked shut by my leaning against it I released the book and heard it hit the ground with a very loud thud.

After taking several overdramatic gasps for air I placed a locking charm on the door and joined the beast of a book on the floor. I immediately flipped back to the index of the book and searched under souls. When I found a section labeled Souls, or lack thereof I figured that was my best bet and turned to the page that was listed.

No Soul? No Problem!

By: Dr. Cleo Freud

For many years now it has been a subject of extreme controversy that there are those who have existed in this world without souls. Otherwise known as the damned the soulless are thought to be descendants of vampires; but what if they were not relatives of these dark creatures?

New evidence has shed astounding light on the subject. Throughout history there have been five seers that have been publicly known as 'true' seers. While there have been several others with the sight they are not whole seers. They glimpse into the future, but a true seer has the ability to shape, change, and mold the future at their own will.

It has been centuries since the Wizarding world has seen a seer of this magnitude. But many ask how they are able to grasp this gift, how a 'true' seer becomes just that. The answer is simple, they have no soul. They are able to change the future because it does not affect them.

A 'true' seer never dies. Their mortal body may pass, but their mind never does. Because they have no soul to pass on to another world they are doomed to live forever. Their mind is said to be taken to The Eternal Wandering where they foresee endless possibilities of the future until it ultimately drives the mind to madness.

I shut the book quickly as I could not stand to read anymore. It didn't mean anything, I tried to reason with myself. Just because my soul was temporarily missing that did not mean that I didn't have one.

I wasn't a 'true' seer. The person who wrote the article was obviously guessing on the subject. If there hasn't been one of these in centuries then they couldn't know anything about the subject, right?

I felt my breathing hasten, what if I was a seer? What if my mind was doomed to be immortal, what if I had no soul? I would never love, never feel, never know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. I would only know the future, and what sort of future was that for me?

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I feigned sleep until everyone else in the house was lying peacefully in their beds. I had to find that thing, it held the answers that I wanted, I just knew it.

But finding that thing proved to be less then easy. I went back to the woods where it first appeared and waited for it. I quickly grew tired of simply waiting so I walked around, searched for it. I even called out for it. But since I had no idea what it was I was walking around the woods yelling out "hey you silver misty thing!" And that didn't appear crazy or anything.

Feeling defeated I plopped down on the ground ungracefully. After a few moments I heard a rustle in the leaves and I quickly sprang up from my laying position, determined to catch the thing.

But as I was jumping around in every direction searching for it the only thing that I found was a frightened Hermione. I sighed, half in relief and half in disappointment; it wasn't back.

"Ron?" She asked apprehensively, "are you all right?"

"Fine," I answered, "absolutely bloody peachy."

She gave me a concerned look and moved a few steps closer. "I've been worried about you for the past few days Ron. You've just been acting…different. Are you quite sure you're okay?"

I walked over to her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "I'm fine," I said while leading her back into the house, "you have nothing to worry about."

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A/N Okay I wrote the last half of this doped up on pain medication so I'm not really sure how much sense it made, but hopefully you are all following. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I'm not doing personal shout outs this chapter because I feel about ready to pass out but I promise to get around to it next chapter, which should be out by the middle of the week. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, as I'm sure that you are all probably confused, lol. And be sure to leave your author get well cookies and ice cream, lol!

Oh and when Hermione gave Ron that book she thought that he was interested in it because he wanted to work in the Unusual Magical Occurrences section of the Ministry in case anyone didn't get that.